


Won't You Have My Brain Baby?

by MercurialMagpie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, MIT Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28892127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialMagpie/pseuds/MercurialMagpie
Summary: Tony is feeling a recent loss. Rhodey helps him channel the pain into something interesting and new.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	Won't You Have My Brain Baby?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Banned Together Bingo, square I4, miscegenation/interracial relationships  
> My first time ever writing IronHusbands!  
> So, I don't specify in the story, but Tony is 18 and Rhodey is 21, fyi.

Jim let himself into his dorm room, assuming that the silence meant the place was empty, but when he flicked on the light, he saw his roommate/best friend(/enormous crush, but let’s not inflate his ego any further), Tony, curled up on his own bed, hugging a pillow like it was a life vest in rough seas. Jim sighed, dropped his backpack by his own bed and went to sit on Tony’s bed. “Hey, buddy. Rough day?” Jim thought this might be the first time in months and months of friendship he’d ever seen Tony completely motionless while awake. It was surprisingly disconcerting.

Tony sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “My butler left.” He winced and scrunched a little further into a ball. “God, and that sounds horribly privileged, doesn’t it? It’s not like that, though.” He took a deep, fortifying breath, and squirmed into a more upright position. “Honestly, he and his wife were more parents to me than my actual parents, how sad is that? But, um, she died a couple of years ago. Cancer. And a few months ago, his niece and nephew-in-law (is that even how you say that? Anyway) invited him to go live with them back in Jolly Old England, and he finally just took them up on it. Last thing he did before he headed for the airport was call me and say good bye.” He blinked back fresh tears.

Jim put his arm around the younger boy comfortingly. “Hey, I get it. It’s not the end of the world, but it _is_ the end of an era. Change sucks. Tell you what, just for tonight, we will ignore all our responsibilities and eat junk food. You want me to run to the store for Ben and Jerry’s?”

Tony blinked up at him (looking far too damn appealing with his lashes all tear-clumped and his eyes wide and shimmering) and put on an extra-sweet smile. “Could you maybe get us some liquor, too? I’d do it myself, if I was old enough...”

Jim snorted. “Yeah, I know you can get booze just as easy as anyone else on this campus. But you can put away the Bambi eyes. In this one- ONE! -instance, I will save you the effort and pick it up. But in return, you owe me like a week’s worth of off campus dinners, got it?”

Tony nodded, his too-long hair flopping into his face. “Two weeks, even. You’re the best, Rhodey!” He slipped one arm off the pillow and around the back of Jim’s waist, returning the funky hug. Jim let himself indulge in kissing the top of Tony’s head before he got up to get his wallet and keys. 

Three hours, four pints of ice cream, and a couple of bottles of whiskey later, the mood in their dorm room was much, much better. Tony had told a bunch of ridiculous stories, mostly starring a tiny, precocious Tony and an exasperated but still fond Jarvis. Jim had shared a few of his own stories, times he had driven his parents or his aunties and uncles crazy with shenanigans. Now, they were flying high, surfing a glorious wave of drunkenness, sugar high, and good old endorphins. 

Jim was struck with a genius idea. “Tones! Artificial Intelligence!”

Tony tipped his head like a curious dog. “Yes, honeybear, we were talking about that all last semester. No one has managed it yet. What about it?”

Jim grinned and stuck one finger up in the air. “We! We are young geniuses, we know pretty much everything there is about computer code, _we_ can make AI work! And we even have a personality we can base it off of!” He leaned in, as if to share a secret, not noticing that he didn’t turn his volume down at all. “Cause, let’s face it, Tony baby, you need someone who can look after you, and I can’t always be there.”

Tony’s eyes lit with the fire of creation. “An AI version of Jarvis. Rhodey, that totally _is_ genius! OK, do we start with personality, or the learning algorithms?” He reached over and booted up his computer without taking his eyes off Jim.

~A~A~

Jim would never have guessed that arguing with someone could make you love them more. And yet, somehow, Tony Stark managed to make it happen. They had been working on this AI project for almost three months now, and not a single week had gone by without them yelling at each other over it. But weirdly enough, it seemed like every day his… infatuation (he had to admit it was no longer just a crush) was growing, creeping into every corner and angle of his life. Even when Tony was driving him completely mental, he still wanted to spend every moment of his day with him. It didn’t make a single iota of sense, but then again, his mama had always told him that love wasn’t about sense, it was about specialness, and what Jim and Tony had was definitely its own special something.

“Platypus, you’re home!” Tony sailed in the door, threw his bookbag onto his bed, and headed directly for Jim, who had been lying on his own bed, pleasantly agonizing over these crazy, impossible thoughts. Tony flopped down, more on top of Jim than beside him, and groaned into his shoulder. “Thanksgiving is stupid.”

Jim sucked in a breath. “Oh, geeze. Right. Um, are your parents even going to be in the country next week?”

Tony shook his head without moving the rest of his body. “Jarvis used to remind them to be home that week, not that we ever had the Norman Rockwell thing, but I don’t even know if they’re in the same city as each other right now. I can probably get them to let me stay on campus, though, right?”

Jim’s arms automatically came up around Tony. “Screw that. You’re coming home with me.” Tony started to raise up, to argue, but Jim just gave him a quelling look. “Don’t bother. If my mama found out you had no place to go, and I _didn’t_ bring you home, she’d disown me. And possibly adopt you, but she might do that anyway. Just to warn you.” Tony let his head drop down again, and Jim took ten seconds to memorize the feel of the smaller boy on top of him (and five seconds to try to will away a boner) before patting Tony’s head. “There you go. I’ll call tomorrow and let her know to set an extra place. Oh, and what’s your favorite kind of pie?”

Tony opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before any sound came out. “Um, I guess… lemon meringue? I don’t want her to go to any trouble for me, though.”

Jim snickered. “Yeah. I dare you to say to her face that feeding you is going to any trouble. I’ll be off to the side with the camcorder.”

Tony sighed as if the whole thing was more trouble than it was worth. “Fine. I guess I’ll do Thanksgiving with your family. But you gotta help me get them, like, a really nice bottle of wine and a fruit basket, or something.”

~A~A~

For the most part, Thanksgiving had been really nice, and had gone exactly like Jim had expected. His aunties all fussed over him, his uncles clapped him on the back and talked a big game, and his siblings and cousins were their usual obnoxious selves. Meanwhile, this tiny, socially awkward white boy had somehow charmed every member of the family, from Great-Gran Esther, who didn’t like _any_ white folks, to cousin Claire’s baby, who was barely teething but quieted faster for Tony than for her own father. The unexpected part came Sunday night, just before they headed for the train station, when Mama pulled him aside.

She raked a look up and down him. “You know, baby, it’s ok. You coulda just told me you were bringing your boyfriend, I wouldn’t’ve minded.”

Jim sputtered. “He’s not- We’re not- No, Mama, I told you, he’s my roommate, he had nowhere else to go-”

Mama nodded knowingly. “Uh-huh. Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter, Jimmy. I saw the way the two of you looked at each other all weekend.” She leaned in and hugged him, hard. “It’s alright if you’re not ready to say it yet.”

Jim returned the hug a little numbly, his mind stuck on one point. “You… The way _the two of us_ looked? No, come on, Mama, he doesn’t look at me like that. I’m his only friend, is all.”

She gave him a dry look. “Well, maybe you should help him make more friends. That aside, that boy looks at you like you hung the sun _and_ moon. You gonna man up and ask him out?” 

Jim smacked a hand to his face. “Mother, stay out of my love life!” He stormed off to the kitchen.

~A~A~

He couldn’t stop thinking about it, though. That maybe Tony was interested back. The idea even crept into the code for their AI, the thought that Tony deserved unconditional love, and that he was capable of giving the same back again. He started to think of the project as a love song, a duet that they were singing, in a language only they knew. (OK, fine, his mama might have raised a romantic. Whatever.)

Finally ( _finally!!_ ), three days before Christmas break, the last line of code compiled, and they told the program to _execute_. The cursor blinked on the screen for a long, breathless moment, and then, it happened. ++Good afternoon, Sirs. How may I be of service?++

They laughed, incredulously, with relief, as Tony quickly typed ++You can be your perfect, glorious self!++ in response. Tony spun around a couple of times, then threw himself into Jim’s arms, still laughing. “Holy crap, Rhodey! We did it! We just made the world’s first functional AI!” He pressed his lips to Jim’s just long enough for Jim to process that it was happening, but not long enough for him to respond, before pulling away, blushing bright red. “Sorry. I, um, I got carried away, I know you’re not even into guys...”

Jim swooped in, wrapping Tony up in his arms, where he belonged, and gazing into his eyes. “I’m into _you_.” He leaned down, returning the kiss, and held long enough for Tony to figure things out and get with the program. Soon, they were entirely caught up, lost in the feel of each other’s lips.

++Sirs? Do you have any instructions for me?++

++Sirs?++


End file.
